Chardon School Board’s first meeting of the year started with a strong visual statement delivered by more than 130 of the district’s teachers.

Minutes prior to Monday’s meeting, the teachers, currently undergoing contract negotiations, walked silently in single file, filling the rows of seats in the meeting room at Chardon Middle School. Each carried a blue sign displaying the message “We Are Worth More.”

In a show of support for the statement, the teachers stood up in silence while displaying their signs. Newly elected board president David Fairbanks asked them to be seated in order to maintain the meeting’s decorum. Without dispute, the teachers complied.

“I am here to express our fervent hope that, in the next negotiation session, the Board of Education and the Chardon Education Association will come to an agreement …,” Boiarski said. “The members of the CEA have shown their dedication and commitment to the Chardon Local Schools by agreeing to pay freezes for the last six years. In the last two years alone, those pay freezes have saved the Chardon Local School district approximately $500,000…

“Our members have labored to maintain our excellent rating, despite the elimination of many education options for our students…,” she continued. “Please be sure to note, as you make your decision, that the membership of the CEA is united in its determination to ratify a fair and equitable contract.”

Since December Chardon teachers have been following Work to Rule guidelines as advised by the CEA. Work to Rule is defined as “the practice by workers of refusing to do any work that is not strictly required as a part of their jobs in order to protest something (such as unfair working conditions).”

For instance, teachers would stop voluntarily taking part in after-school activities as well as not participating in evening events unless they were contractually required.

However, an exception was made in December by some teachers who attended and assisted with school holiday concerts.

CEA spokesperson Sierra Polsinelli stated that the Work to Rule option rather than a strike was chosen by the organization to display teachers’ position of seeking a fair and equitable contract, including seeking raises.

“(A strike) is kind of the last thing you do,” she said. “And that hasn’t been discussed.”

Polsinelli added that despite teachers dissatisfaction with the last communication from the negotiating team which indicated through a written proposal that there would be no raises, “They handle their frustration better than any group I’ve seen.”

A contract negotiations meeting set for last week was canceled due to severe weather conditions. The meeting has been rescheduled for Thursday.

Also delivering comments in support of negotiating a fair contract for teachers was Tim Bowens, who has taught in Chardon Schools for 35 years.

The public comment section of the meeting concluded with Chardon School parent Coco Griffis calling for the board and teachers to reach an agreement in which both sides would be satisfied and students could return to an optimal educational environment.